Hello fellow Mei mains
Guess its time I chimed in with my two cents. I will write my concrete buff ideas (and commentary on already suggested changes) at the bottom of this post as a TL;DR; but let me explain how I decided on these. Bear with me as I am very interested in the experiences and viewpoints of other (Mei) players from all skill-levels in OW.
As the average e-stalker has probably already checked 10 seconds ago I have 400+ hours on Mei. But, before this unavoidably gets mentioned, yes I am also stuck in plat for 9 seasons.
Why do I feel to mention this first you ask? Well because there is a big difference between changes that will make an average player happy (and get more use out of a hero) and those that might make a pro-player consider picking a hero for more than just to stall a B objective… (Which part of the player-base should actually be pandered to is a topic for another time. If interested just do research why StarCraft 2 is basically dead outside pro tournaments).
So how about Mei. <3
Mei is listed as a ‘controller’ isn’t she? Three star “difficulty” no less! Well turns out in anything lower than “masters” it is really hard to find a team that actually understands what that means and synergizes accordingly. Examples of what rarely happens: Mates killing your popsicles first (ultimate or primary) or focusing on that lead tank you just cut of from his team with a wall.
So in those lower ranks, and of course not wanting to simply cheat with a bot for your icicles either [yes I see that once a week at least], what CAN you still do for a decent Mei-carry?
Well obviously you can only try your best, according to the situation. A lot of times this might be to protect your backline from those pesky flankers by just slowing them or going for those lucky headshot instakills. At other times you might find a good Hog or Rein with whom you can push and punish everything that gets close very badly. But most of times (in QP and low-rank competitive) you will just be yourself, lone wolfing along a flank to surprise-wall up to a widow (that your team constantly ignores) and freeze her to death. That is just one example of course. More broadly put, one of the most important capabilities of a ‘controller’ is having a very high ‘game sense’. That includes being aware of enemy positions, movements and the level of danger they pose to your own teams current position and composition.
Sadly, at least from my own experience in platinum and below, nobody else seems to be aware of those aspects of the game. Most people seem to think once you have forced 2-2-2 in spawn and if people choose the correct counterpicks in-game, the round is already won. Everything else is surely up to individual skill, especially that of the DPS. Not so! But I digress…
While trying your best as part of a team that is largely not on voice comms and has the game sense of a brick more often than not you will get a surprise yourself. Doesn’t even matter if it is while being the last survivor on a point like Kings Row A or when trying to ‘counter flank’ as Mei in the Anubis tunnel. This isn’t an encounter with that single annoying enemy Tracer (or Genji) either but usually comes in the form of enemies actually communicating and ganging up on you in a group of at least three. ;w;
Now this is where I want my buffs, my sustain as Mei. I am a #$%& defense hero OK? It’s fine if I cannot pull of that multikill all by myself but I need to hold out / stall them until help can arrive. It surely will! Right team? Hello? Oh you have set up at B already? Mhmm thanks *Triggers “Hello” voiceline in iceblock surrounded by six angry attackers*. ;w;
Therefore my ideas. I am not suggesting implementing all of these as it would make Mei OP for sure. But SOME would be nice (TL;DR;):
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The most obvious. Fix the ultimate in some of these ways:
- Ultimate disables or severely slows movement abilities from the moment snowball has found his final position.
- Freeze is much faster (see primary fire suggestion for base-health dependent freeze speed below)
- Ultimate continues when stunned or killed IF / ONCE snowball has left my hand.
- Classify snowball as a ‘pet’ rather than projectile so it does not get eaten by DM.
- Decrease the time it takes from pressing my keybind to people starting to freeze by A LOT. If you have to decrease the AoE to make this seem fair, so be it.
- Alternatively double the AoE. Means my teammates have to hunt down popsicles all over the map but so be it. At least we would have a use for the SO CUTE “Hey its snowing voiceline” that is already in the game xD
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Up HP to 300 or add 50 armor (it’s that tough thermo underwear). She is being seen as an off-tank already by many, so why not?
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Reduce Wall cooldown / add a pilar / make wall unclimbable
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Give Cryofreeze some kind of effect when it ends/gets canceled that hinders the enemy widows ability to just headshot me on exit. Like a small snow explosion. Mei exiting in a little random direction jump like DV.A does, etc.
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Remove icicle damage falloff.
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Improve the primary in at least two of these ways:
- Make freeze speed depend on targets base health. This would make her a perfect anti-flanker since it would then have a similar effect on Tracer / Genji to e.g. the flashbang. Touch and freeze! Hell yeah stop the mobility craze.
- Make freeze spray always ‘penetrate’ allowing Mei to freeze many targets at the same time and taking away the annoying ability for enemy teammates to bodyblock. That is anti-tank / deathball meta I guess.
- Speed up and or increase effective range of freeze ray. Make it more hitscan-like i.e. like Zaryas beam (without changing the visuals ofc).
- Make freeze either ignore shields or apply a ‘brittle’ effect that makes shields take double damage. Man does Brigitte make Mei impossible to play currently…
- Make discord (Zen) modify the time it needs to freeze an enemy. It seems the healing orb already NEGATIVELY influences this.
Finally, ideas I read here that I do not think Mei needs:
Ammo Reload in CryoFreeze
Ever since the last ‘buff’ I rarely find myself in that “oh nooez I have to reload” situation. It still happens but its way better than before and usually only the case if my position is actually getting overwhelmed. Let the teammates get some kills for a change.
Shorter but stronger CryoFreeze or Shorter CryoFreeze with less cooldown
Hmm no. Talk about Mei feeling oppressive. CryoFreeze has many side-effects you know? Like blocking doorways for enemies, giving shelter to a crouching teammate behind you (like a better Brigitte shield). There are others but my point is that Mei being able to pull off such an ability every few seconds would probably annoy people even more than being executed after a freeze.
Movement modifiers e.g. shooting ground to ice skate
I do not think we need MORE mobility in this game. It’s a fun idea and I come from games where faster movement is king (q3a / ut2004) but it just would not fit well.
Wall aura modifiers e.g. slowdown enemies close to wall
Sounds fun but I would rather have more wall use per minute / extra pillars. Also this is probably something that would require costly engine changes.
Faster icicles, icicles with increased RoF
Please no! I and surely many others have gotten used to the rhythm and speed of the projectiles. Do not make us re-learn how to anticipate a blinking tracer at 20 feet.
I hope I did not forget anything. Oh yeah, before considering touching any of this. PLEASE fix her bugs / QoL issues first:
- I do NOT want to get hooked out of the ice-block. Same goes for being hacked / charged etc.
- I do NOT want to be killed by hitscan (projectiles are a different thing) through a wall that is very clearly completely constructed. Either I do not get hit or the wall does not exist. This is especially important since I cannot cancel the wall once dead and it might annoy/hinder teammates. Think about it!
- Ultimate snowball is NOT supposed to get stuck on the payload or map elements, ever. Just fly higher.
- Oh and blizzards do NOT work line-of-sight based. Whoever had that silly idea? Please make it a cylinder (not a globe) that extends from snowballs position all the way down under the map. People not affected by it because they are one step of stairs below makes me pull out my hair!
- One for the team: Let teammates see my wall placement. With option to toggle this off in options.
- Finally, on occasion I get squishies that do not die when headshot after being frozen. Yes I am close and I did hear the headshot sound-effect. So… uhm… die please. (No they did not stand on a nano healing field with a zen orb attached.)
Done! Ha they don’t call me the wall-of-text master for nothing.
Have a great day everyone.
P.S.: English isn’t my primary language so excuse any mistakes and me not sounding as elaborate / proficient as I would like